Urban Problems and Policies in Latin America- Truths and Fallacies

8/12/2019 Urban Problems and Policies in Latin America- Truths and Fallacies

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URBAN PROBLEMS AND POLICIES IN LATIN AMERICA: TRUTHS AND FALLACIES i

Urban Problems and Policies

in Latin America:

Truths and Fallacies

Martha Schteingart

El Colegio de Mxico

United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT)Nairobi, 2007

UN-HABITAT Lecture Award Series, No. 2


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ii URBAN PROBLEMS AND POLICIES IN LATIN AMERICA: TRUTHS AND FALLACIES

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URBAN PROBLEMS AND POLICIES IN LATIN AMERICA: TRUTHS AND FALLACIES 1

Introduction

I will attempt to summarize, in this presentation, some of the research I havecarried out during different periods of my academic career, and to reframesome of its conclusions in the context of the conditions that prevailed at the

time. I will also explain why we began to explore new ways of reinterpretingdata already analyzed. This review will be placed in the context of the eldof Latin American urban studies and specically within certain thematic andtheoretical trends. Our research was part of a collective work which at theoutset was linked to a group of investigators engaged in a continued processof theoretical discussions and presentation of research advances and results.Likewise, in order to be able to reect on the veracity and relevance of theaforementioned conclusions, I will attempt to compare them with recent

perspectives on the status of Latin American cities, dealing mainly withsocial and urban policies. Commenting on proposed solutions and programs,in light of certain studies undertaken, is a useful way of revealing the socialinuence of urban studies, even if they do not fall into the category of action-research.

With 8.5% of the world population, 14% of the urban population and four ofthe worlds 20 mega cities in the year 2000 (Mexico City, So Paulo, BuenosAires and Rio de Janeiro), Latin America has a high level of urbanization, far

exceeding that of other Third World regions. Nevertheless, the similarity ofthis level of urbanization with that of the worlds more developed regionsdoes not mean that it shares the same level of economic development.Whereas in 1970, 37% of the poor were urban residents, by 1999 this gurehad risen to 62%, since nowadays the largest concentration of poor familiesis found precisely in cities. As for the differences between countries and theirevolution in recent decades, in 1950, only three of the 22 countries included inthe region (Uruguay, Argentina and Chile) had over 50% of their population

in urban areas, whereas by 2000, this was the case in 18 countries (Lattes,Rodrguez and Villa, 2004).

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2 URBAN PROBLEMS AND POLICIES IN LATIN AMERICA: TRUTHS AND FALLACIES

Studies within the Context of Latin American Urban Research

Beginning in the 1960s urban research in Latin America has evolved atdifferent rates according to the historical specicities of each country.Together with the denition of new research issues and various conceptual

approaches, urban studies progressed from the search for explanations ofhyper-urbanization and marginalization within the framework of the theory ofmodernization, particularly during the 1960s and the rst half of the 1970s, totheorizations based on political economy and Marxist urban sociology duringthe following period, until the mid 1980s, when there was a predominance ofmore local perspectives. These perspectives were less focused on dominantparadigms, and there was a clear emergence of new thematic concerns thatled, particularly from the 1990s onwards, to the consideration of globalization

as a useful resource for explaining several aspects of urbanization. Whereasin the 1960s and 1970s differences were found among the topics researchedin various groups of countries1, the changes that took place during the 1980sled to a noticeable rapprochement among the topics. For a variety of reasons,these topics became critical cross sections of Latin American societies. Theywere related to urban poverty, social division of space, local government,social movements, environment and security2.

1. In the early 1990s, I took part in an evaluation of Latin American urban research, whichwas part of a broader study on Third World countries, coordinated by Richard Stren and

the Center for Urban and Community Studies of the University of Toronto, Canada. LatinAmerica was divided into three sub-regions and the researchers in charge of each onesubmitted full reports on the issues and disciplines involved, as well as the institutionalcontext of each case (Stren, 1995).

2. Although the issues dealt with are undoubtedly linked to the problems existing in eachcountry, they have not all received the same amount of attention from the academic com-munity, which also depends on the theoretical and methodological advances of the dis-ciplines involved, researchers access to information, training, skills and experience aswell as institutional, nancial and political factors. But research processes also have theirown dynamics, linked to researchers scientic priorities and academic evolution, theirbelonging to certain groups or trends within their area of study, not to mention the inu-

ence, particularly in our eld, of scholars from large centers that produce new ideas andconceptual frameworks (Schteingart 1995 and 2000).


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Within this context, I think it is essential to comment on the succession ofissues selected, as well as their links with studies by other Latin Americancolleagues with similar analytical perspectives with whom I have worked foryears, either by engaging in shared studies within the same research project,

or independently, while exchanging points of view and interpretationsof the changing reality through academic meetings that contributed to theconsolidation of our eld at both the national and the regional level.

Housing and Urban Land Issues in the 1970s and 1980s

This has been a recurrent topic within urban studies although, in recent years,the housing problem has been less important than it was in the 1970s and1980s, due to the emergence, as I mentioned earlier, of new urban researchissues.

From the mid 1970s onwards, in certain Latin American countries, particularlyMexico, a new approach to housing studies began to arise. This happened dueto a certain degree of political openness that encouraged the developmentof new critical approaches in the social sciences, together with the creationof housing and land institutions and programs that produced a demand forstudies and proposals together with a propitious climate for the developmentof research on these issues. During this period, our studies included housingpolicies in Mexico, at a time when different orientations began to change

the approach that had predominated during the previous two decades.For example, it was thought at the time that dening the housing problementailed describing the physical characteristics of housing and pointing outthe discrepancies between them and what people actually needed. This, inturn, determined the actions to be taken. Such an orientation was based onthe conception of the capitalist state and its limitations because of its classdenition, the theoretical developments concerning the social agents whoproduced the citys built environment as well as the accumulation of capital

in the promotional and construction sectors (which in turn were based onthe cycle of capital and the economic logic of the real estate business). Thesecategories were at the center of the analyses and emerged as new, attractiveapproaches for providing an explanatory framework that overcame the severelimitations of more traditional theories. A major change occurred between the

3. This did not happen in Southern Cone countries such as Chile, Argentina and to a certain

extent Brazil, due to the presence of dictatorships that prevented the free development ofthe social sciences.


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housing studies of the 1950s and 1960s and those that began to be developedfrom the mid-1970s onwards, which, with a few minor differences, haveprevailed until the present days, at least among a considerable number ofresearchers.

In the rst study we conducted in Mexico on public housing policy, weemphasized the processes of production, exchange and consumption thattook place within a certain economic and political context. It occurred at a timewhen, instead of referring to the states withdrawal, as we shall see below, wedescribed the establishment of new institutions created to deal with differentsocial groups, while pointing out their structural class limitations and theirrelations with the capitalist sector of construction (Garza and Schteingart,1977). In this study, however, these relations were not very clear. Only

later, as a result of our research on the promotional sector, were we able todetermine the specic practices of other social actors who operated within theprocess of housing production4 (Schteingart, 1989). It should be pointed outthat studies on the capitalist agents that participate in the production processof the built environment were not very common, despite the fact that therewas an awareness of their importance in explaining their inuence on thehigh cost of a basic asset for families. The emphasis on other issues as wellas the theoretical and empirical difculties inherent in this type of analysisprevented further research.

Urban land is an intrinsic part of the housing problem, which has undergonea steep price increase particularly in large cities, with negative consequenceson the organization of urban space. Although studies on land prices beganto proliferate, it was difcult to prove their link with the increase in housingprices, the inability of large sectors of the population to gain access to theformal land market and to explain the issue of irregular settlements.

Conversely, we felt that the urbanization of land corresponding to agrarian

nuclei (communal and ejido land)) was useful for describing the socialprocesses involved in the expansion of cities, specically in Mexico City,where the rapid growth of its periphery became a key issue for urbanresearchers. In the late 1970s, we showed how the capital city had spread over

4. Real estate promotion research that took some of the theoretical elements presented byFrench urban sociology, enabled us to discover the broad network of social relationsand capitals invested in the housing production, supported by both private and publicnancing, since the 1970s, which underwent a series of transformations over the past twodecades.


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communal and ejido land through mechanisms that implied ambiguouslinks with the laws in force and had adverse social consequences for poorfamilies (Schteingart, 1989). Many other studies on both Mexico City andother cities in the country helped explain the role of this type of land in urban

development.Irregular settlements

The issue of irregular settlements, which is partly linked to the preceding one,has undoubtedly played a key role in Latin American urban studies since theyare extremely important in the spatial organization of cities in the region. Thisimportance varies according to the social structure and historic developmentof each country but has also increased owing to the limitations of housingprograms in the context of trade liberalization, adjustment programs and the

development of neo-liberal policies.Studies in the 1970s and 1980s, unlike previous ones on marginalization, werecharacterized by the fact that they analyzed illegal means of appropriatingland, the processes of regularization and consolidation of neighborhoodsand the urban struggles that led poor settlers to confront the state andother social agents. It became increasingly obvious that there was a needto examine their insertion in the labor force in order to disprove theoryregarding the possible coincidence between marginalization at work and

spatial marginalization. Another important aspect of these settlements atthat time was linked to popular housing production and self-construction,which enabled key elements to be compiled on the various forms of housingproduction, whether modern or backward, simple or combined, withinthe Latin American context. It is worth pointing out that research on theseurban phenomena was carried out on the basis of case studies, which partlyrestricted the possibility of making broad generalizations, since it was notuntil very recently that the National Population and Housing Censuses

included specic information on irregular settlements asfavelas in Brazil andvillas miseriain Argentina However, in other countries such vital informationhas yet to be included in these national survey instruments that can cover acountrys entire urban environment.5

5. However, case studies provide more in-depth knowledge of certain urban social processes,

even though there is a risk of choosing examples that may not be very representative of amore global reality.


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One crucial aspect that partly denes and characterizes irregular settlements isprecisely the question of access to urban land, but it is also important to pointout that this irregularity may reveal differences in Latin American countries,since there are several legal situations and ways of violating the laws in force,

as well as programs for regularizing land ownership in the various nationaland urban contexts (Azuela and Schteingart, 1991).6

During that period, using a case study to examine how illegality emergedin Mexico on land that was not privately owned, we analyzed the largestpopular settlement in the Mexico City Metropolitan Zone (MCMZ), andprobably in the country (Nezahualcyotl, largely state-owned). We found outthat illegality was partly a consequence of confusion regarding the history ofland ownership, which was not in the interest of either the public sector or

illegal property developers to clarify. We also studied the strategies used byreal estate promoters in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s to acquire land reservesthat would enable them to produce large housing developments on themetropolitan periphery. In hindsight, these case studies certainly helped toexplain how urban sprawl, the social division of space and the concentrationof different social strata have taken place. We will return to these issues later(Schteingart, 1989).

Taking Stock of Social and Urban Policies in the 1990s and 2000sThe 1990s and the beginning of the 21st century witnessed the consolidationof socio-political reforms that had begun years earlier and that pointed to asignicant changes in state intervention in general, and in urban issues inparticular. This new scenario, which, albeit to varying degrees, emerged inseveral countries in the region, led us to incorporate new aspects that had notpreviously been included in urban studies, deal with other issues, and placemore emphasis on the reduction of the states role and the negative effects of

this on the majority of the poor population.Poverty had always been present to a signicant degree. Irregular settlements,which largely provided shelter for the poor, had begun to emerge in the regionin the 1950s and 1960s. Consequently, these phenomena could not be regardedas a conjunctural issue but rather as part of an ongoing, structural problem

6. These are conclusions included in a paper in which Azuela (2000) analyzes examples of

access to land in irregular settlements in various Latin American countries (Venezuela,Peru, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico).


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of these cities, which was exacerbated by increasing unemployment, growinginformal sector, declining real salaries, and changes in state policies.7

Habitat and Health

A wide-range study that included the relationship between habitat and healthstarted in the 1990s (Schteingart, coordinator, 1997) and took into account theresults of an in-depth survey that revealed, among other things, an alarmingsituation regarding the health status of the poor. Figures on the prevalenceof certain diseases in these spaces were more than double the numbers ofthe National Health Survey for the entire Mexico City. This study allowedus to show that it is possible to establish the scope of the health problemin poor settlements. This goes beyond the scope of the most comprehensivesurveys undertaken by government, casting doubt on the statements of

certain researchers and government ofcials on the advantages of this kindof urbanization. The study also included undertaking certain actions withthe communities involved in the cases selected and beginning to explore thepossibilities of participatory action-research.

Ten years later, we analyzed the current social problems of the population thatwas settled in some of these neighborhoods for more than 30 years. On thebasis of workshops with communities, mainly with womens groups, we havebegun to prove that although these neighborhoods have progressed in terms

of quality of housing, urbanization and certain services, partly encouragedby the regularization of land ownership and certain positive policies of localgovernment, the situation has notoriously deteriorated in terms of employment,safety on the streets and education, because of the overall economic and socialprocesses mentioned earlier, which barely depend on local management. Inthe rst research project, undertaken on four settlements in the MCMZ, on thebasis of a large scale survey, we noticed a predominance of industry workersand salaried employees, with a considerable number of workers belonging to

the formal sector of the economy. Conversely, our current analyses suggestthat there has been a signicant increase in mens underemployment and the

7. Until the late 1970s, the prevailing view in Latin America was that the state shouldguarantee the populations social rights, that social policy should play a complementaryrole to economic policy and that universal social policies should be developed. Althoughthis vision was only applied in a partial, stratied fashion, with differences in the variouscountries in the region, as a result of the reforms in the 1980s and the prevalence of neo-liberal ideas, frequent criticisms have emerged of programs targeting the poor, which

proved highly insufcient and in some cases, implied signicant regressions for largegroups of the Latin American population (Schteingart, coordinator, 1999).


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precarization of work, with a greater proportion of women in the labor force.8These comparative conclusions converge with other studies that show thata downward equalization of men and womens work appears to be takingplace, whereas in the past gender studies revealed sharp differences in the

quality of jobs and income between the two sexes (Damin, 2003). But sincewomen lack childcare support from the government or the community, thissituation leads to an increase in family disintegration, the creation of youthgangs, drug addiction, and a lack of safety in poor neighborhoods which wehad not observed in our studies a decade earlier.

Regularization and Upgrading of Settlements

On the basis of the case studies, we can argue that the regularization of landownership has not necessarily helped the poor to obtain loans for home

improvement, which is usually achieved through enormous sacrices and theuse of self-construction processes. This study conrms the research conductedin other Latin American countries such as Peru and Colombia (Gilbert, 2002and Caldern, 2003), which opposed Hernando de Sotos declarations thatthe regularization of land ownership or the possession of the legal title of aproperty enables the poor to use their assets as collateral for a successfulbusiness and gain access to formal banking. In other words, land ownershipwould open up the possibility of using registered property to transform

dead capital, through credit, into a basis for business development, therebyimproving the living conditions of the poor. His discourse, which encouragesa sort of popular capitalism among the poor, could not be more attractive inthe neo-liberal atmosphere that has dominated economic and social policiesover the past 20 years (Caldern, 2003).9

Indeed, part of the research I am commenting on (Duhau and Schteingart,1997) showed that these neighborhoods gradually gained access to theregularization of land ownership and that this only appeared as a factor directly

8. A study undertaken in the 1990s (Ortega, 1997) showed that these settlements largelyconstituted the living framework of workers belonging to the formal sector of theeconomy, whose low salaries and difculties in gaining access to the states insufcienthousing programs led them to participate in the processes of irregular urbanization. Asfor the women, they were mainly employed as domestic servants and street vendors.

9. Hernando de Soto, has achieved international notoriety due to the series of fallacies de-scribed in his books The Other Path and The Mystery of Capital, in which, among manyother things, he states that informality is the inability of law to adjust to the way people

actually live, and that practical solutions are to be found in the sphere of law rather thaneconomics or culture.


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linked to their improvement when it depended primarily on the security ofland ownership, but that possessing a legal title was not indispensable whenland and home ownership was not threatened. One of the four neighborhoodswe analyzed, with a more conictive, violent history (due to its location in a

middle-class area), was threatened with eviction for many years, with familiesonly improving their homes after the regularization process begun.

In the case of Peru, under the enormous inuence of Hernando de Soto, anative of that country, mass land regularization programs were implemented.However, Caldern overwhelmingly proved that access to mortgage loanscontinued to be very low, despite the enormous number of legal titlesgranted.10

It is true that at different times urban social movements have claimed the

need to regularize illegal settlements, which in many cases has permittedthe introduction of basic services, and enhanced safety for residents. Thispolicy was a necessary but not sufcient requirement for improving popularsettlements since although housing credits require land ownership to beregularized, those credits have been increasingly restricted for the poor, aswe shall see when we comment on the new housing policies. Moreover, it iseven less certain that regularization allows the poor to use their enterprisingspirit to undertake successful businesses.

New Directions and Strategies

In a study produced a decade ago, in the wake of Habitat II (Schteingart1996) we remarked that the change of attitude regarding state interventionin general and urban issues in particular was obvious in a comparison of theguidelines and denitions approved at the Habitat I meeting in 1976 withthose that emerged from Habitat II twenty years later. During the rst forum,there was a major discussion on the need for state intervention and planningwhereas during the second, the warhorse was enabling strategies and the

implementation of a series of principles related to empowerment and equity.Although the importance of these concepts or principles cannot be denied, it isalso true that they are insufcient for dealing with the needs of the poorest ina world in which access to basic resources is more and more inequitable andinternational relations are increasingly asymmetrical. Whereas Habitat I was

10. 17,068 mortgages as opposed to 1,049,134 titles granted according to information from theUrban Property Register made available to the author of the study show that there is nodirect relationship between regularization, access to mortgage credit and the possibilityof improving ones home.


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held under the banner of the Charter of Rights and Duties of Nations, HabitatII took place at a time when these more general principles and discussionswere overlooked in favor of the defense of individual, local and privateinitiatives, and the so-called new ethics reecting the age-old idea that

private is better than public, despite the fact that experience has often provedthe contrary. These principles often encourage the redenition of familiesroles and responsibilities, grass-roots organizations, commercial rms, etc, inorder to achieve a smaller, more efcient government. In this study, we alsosaid that it was possible to identify two types of enabling strategies: those thatemphasize the need to liberalize markets, deregulate, and privatize, whichis at the center of neo-liberal reforms; and those that propose, for example,coping with the housing problems of the most impoverished groups throughcommunity organizations and the democratization of citizenry. These two

trends can obviously include different points of view on state intervention. Iwould like to point out that in this study we noticed that many of the principlesdisseminated as a result of Habitat II had already been tested years earlierwithout positive results, since in many cases, the enabling strategies simplyplaced the burden of solving their problems on the poor, and made matterseven worse by raising expectations about new strategies that were neither newnor really positive for large sectors of the Latin American population.

Revisiting these reections inspired by the organization of the crucial Habitat

II forum helps us to review the discussions and positions in force in localand international ofcial media, as well as to take into account the reactionsof certain specialists in the eld of housing and urban studies (Cohen et al.1996).

More recent analyses of housing policies and the improvement of irregularsettlements, as borne out, for example, by the Economic Commission for LatinAmerica documents (Arriagada, 2000), state that since the 1970s, policies haveemerged in the region for the regularization of land ownership and serviceprovision, but that more recently, more complete strategies for improvingsettlements have been added. Despite acknowledging the advantages of multi-purpose programs such as Chile Barrio, Primed, in Medellin, Colombia andFavela Bairro, in Brazil, which include contributions to the decentralization,targeting and coordination of sectoral policies (other common categories orsolutions within the ofcial repertoire of recent years on these issues), theyare considered too costly. They involve the concentration of investment in


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certain areas, while overlooking investment in smaller cities or zones wherethere is also a considerable concentration of poverty. In other words, thefact that these programs imply a high subsidy and low cost recovery (evenwith the participation of the beneciaries in the program) places them in a

somewhat contradictory situation vis--vis neo-liberal principles and themost hackneyed current proposals that appear in the general guidelines ofinternational organizations regarding housing policy. This document alsoacknowledges the fact that programs for dealing with precarious settlementsmust complement housing subsidy systems, since the former may lead tothe creation of more irregular neighborhoods instead of encouraging thedevelopment of other housing policies. These are confusing arguments sinceit is not true that policies for upgrading irregular settlements prevent thedevelopment of new housing programs for the poorest. Rather, the fact is that

Latin American governments general policy has tended to follow the trendof providing subsidies only exceptionally, and ensuring that investmentsare recoverable. On the other hand, (and this has been proved on severaloccasions, including in our recent studies on popular settlements) improvinghabitat without modifying access to employment and education or improvingincome makes it impossible for the poor to escape their condition.

In a recently published reader (Coulomb and Schteingart, coordinators, 2006)and after presenting a series of analyses on the new government programs, as

well as other aspects of the housing problem and its various components, weconcluded that in the case of Mexico, although unequal income distributionhas not changed, housing policy with regards to the various social strata hasimplied signicant retrogression for the neediest sectors of the population.For example, during the administration that ended late last year, signicantlymore credits were granted, although they were only made available to 23%of the population. This fact raises the following logical question: What goodis state housing action if it fails to benet those who are unable to obtain

it through the market in a country where the majority of the population ispoor?

A New Spatial Order for Latin American Cities? Social Division of Space andGlobalization

The social division of urban space is not merely a reection of the socialstructure; instead, both are mediated by a series of factors including the


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production of the built environment, the logic of the real estate sector, statehousing policies for different social groups11, the development of irregularurbanization zones for the poor and, obviously, urban planning andmajor projects promoted by different levels of government. However, it is

extremely important to bear in mind that spatial organization also reectssocial structures and processes from different historical moments (Castells,1975; Schteingart, 2001).12

However, I should point out that studies on the social division of space havebeen undertaken on the basis of an analytical orientation and framework thathas hardly used research, general or case studies, that shows how access toland and the various forms of housing production inuence the more globalconguration of cities at different times. This reection obviously contains a

self-criticism of my own academic history, which can partly be explained bythe lack of continuity in the issues explored, resulting from the dynamics ofresearch processes pointed out at the beginning of this presentation13.

Based on accurate data yielded by rigorous research carried out at differenttimes in the recent history of cities, it is difcult to determine whether socio-spatial differences increased or decreased in Latin American cities and whatthis means above all for the largest, most disadvantaged social groups. Suchdifculty is caused by several factors, such as the lack of information and

appropriate analytical techniques, but above all, the absence of a means ofexplaining the changes that occurred and their connotations for differentsocial strata. The scale of segregation and the living conditions that appear

11. For example, it has been acknowledged that in the case of social housing, the tendencyto locate it by primarily taking land prices into account means that the municipalitieswhere the new housing developments are located are extremely peripheral, with verylittle infrastructure and facilities , which has increased segregation, leading in turn togreater problems for urban development and social integration (Arriagada, 2000). At thesame time, as a result of urban social movements, housing programs have been designedto allow low-income groups to remain downtown (as in Mexico City after the earthquakeof 1985).

12. Cities do not change as fast as socio-economic and political practices, and there is a con-tinuity, partly maintained by the rigidity of the built environment. It is also important torecall, as we pointed out earlier, that the question of access to land and the increase inland prices constitute a crucial aspect in the creation of the various districts.

13. We made an initial attempt to link housing production (housing developments for themiddle classes, expansion of irregular settlements, etc.,) with socio-spatial organizationby rings and social strata, established on the basis of census data and multivariate statisti-

cal analyses (Schteingart, 1989) but this link was no longer present in the new studies onthe social division of space carried out later.


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in segregated homogeneous zones have been mentioned, particularly for themost disadvantaged groups in society, as the most negative factors of thisphenomenon (Sabatini, 2003). However, although I agree with this statement,I think that there is an enormous gap in this type of analyses (even in those

carried out by sociologists) which ignore the study and problematization ofthe changes that have occurred in the different social groups in cities (whomwe refer to when we speak of middle and upper-middle sectors and whomwe mean when we speak indiscriminately of the poor), a gap that leads oneto make statements or use terms that often lack social content, which hampersthe task of proposing new policies for coping with the often negative changesin cities.14

Our empirical studies for describing the social division of space on the basis

of census data and the use of a statistical analysis technique such as factoranalysis (Rubalcava and Schteingart, 2000a and 2000b) have shown: 1) wherethe various urban social strata dened on the basis of the analysis techniqueapplied are located on the map of the cities; 2) the behavior of selected variablesand the enormous differences in values; 3) the socio-urban conditions, withina comparative perspective, of the largest metropolises in Mexico; 4) thegreater social homogeneity that is present in the lowest strata of the scale;and 5) the appropriateness of certain variables which, due to changes thathave occurred in the social reality of cities, no longer discriminate between

the different zones (by which I mean, for example, the indexes of tap waterand income included in Censuses). 15

14. By this I mean the use of terms such as fragmentation, social mix, greater proximitybetween social groups, isolation, etc. which have not been properly explained and cansometimes constitute hollow terms rather than providing a precise description of theprocesses included in the socio-spatial division of cities.

15. In relation to Point 1, it showed the centrality of the higher strata and the sometimesacutely peripheral nature of those in worse conditions. As for Point 2, in the comparativestudy of the four largest Mexican metropolises, the proportion of inhabitants with post-elementary education was 80% in the higher stratum and only 30 to 40% in the lower onewhereas the percentage of dwellings with tap water varied from 95% to 30% betweenthose in the best and worst socio-urban conditions respectively, in both Mexico City andGuadalajara, Monterrey and Puebla. Point 3 refers to the fact that the capital of the coun-try, which is also its main economic and political center, displayed worse social condi-tions than Guadalajara and above all, Monterrey (Rubalcava and Schteingart, 2000a). Asfor Point 4, we found that in a study of Mexico City alone (Rubalcava and Schteingart,2000b), there is greater homogeneity in the poorest, most peripheral areas inhabited by

the most disadvantaged sectors than in the central zones with a larger gradation of theupper and middle social groups.


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In this context, the research carried out has revealed the possibilities andshortcomings of the Population and Housing Censuses for this type ofresearch; the positive and negative aspects of works that have used thedifferent units of analysis provided by this source of information, and have

made us aware of the need to undertake a different type of study to ndout more about social differences, particularly in poor segregated zones andthe factors that have inuenced the changes among different cross-sectionaltimes. As we said earlier, the latter are largely concerned with the productionof the built environment, although also, as some articles have indicated(Sabatini, 2003) and others have shown (Duhau, 2003), the relevance of intra-urban residential mobility (an issue that has barely been researched to date inLatin America) to help explain segregation within a more realistic, complexand dynamic perspective.

Nevertheless, Latin America has seen a signicant increase in studies on thesocial division of space, the emergence of new housing developments andshopping centers, as well as facilities and edge cities. On the basis of scantevidence and making a mechanical transposition of observations drawn fromcities in the north, however, certain authors have begun to speak of a new citymodel or urban order, as well as linking them to globalization processes. Ifeel these conclusions are sometimes hasty and that it is necessary to examinecertain urban features more carefully, since they have sometimes existed

for decades while others, although new, have not always been proved tobe a more or less direct consequence of the various processes involved inthe economic and political globalization of todays world. Again I think it isprecisely the lack of links and continuity of the issues researched that is oftenresponsible for these interpretations which are certainly in vogue.

The relationship between globalization and the internal organization ofcities, currently at the center of certain discussions, has guided interestingstudies in Latin America including case studies on Buenos Aires, Rio deJaneiro, So Paulo, Santiago de Chile and Mexico City (Aguilar, editor 2004).Despite the differences regarding the scope and type of changes observedin the metropolises mentioned and the descriptions or explanations that arenot always sufciently based on empirical studies, it is interesting to notethat they refer to a series of fairly recent processes and constitute an essentialstarting point for nding out about the changes that the cities in the region arecurrently undergoing. However, despite the existence of numerous partialtransformations, which include sharper spatial divisions, the emergence of

specic new urban formations and gated communities, within larger structural


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sections, it is difcult to speak of a new urban order that corresponds toglobalization, due partly to a certain slowness of physical changes and to thefact that a city is the outcome of history, where the new and the old intertwinein a complex fashion (Marcuse and Kempen, 2000).

Environment, Violence and Lack of Safety in Cities

In recent years, our urban studies have incorporated the environmentaldimension, since this is crucial to understand some of the new processestaking place in cities. One of the topics we have selected within urban-environmental studies (which are obviously becoming increasingly importantin Latin America) is urban sprawl and its impact on natural resources and theenvironment. This issue may play a key role in the study of metropolitanperipheries, although that obviously depends on the location and hinterland

of the urban center. In Mexico City, given the ecological diversity of theValley of Mexico and the environmental policies implemented to protect it,this problem is of particular interest, mainly because urban sprawl beganto cover zones containing a high proportion of areas designated as naturereserves (Schteingart and Salazar, 2005).16They are, however, threatened byurban growth, particularly through the formation or expansion of irregularsettlements and despite some of the controls established, local policies are toolimited to prevent this occupation. New norms, plans and programs have been

approved in recent years, but if they fail to deal with the problem of povertyand social housing for low-income groups, then they can do little to protectthe environment and promote a new type of sustainable urban development.The conclusions of this book provide some idea of the loss of protected zoneson the urban periphery and how the issue of popular settlements is becomingincreasingly linked to the search for appropriate solutions for environmentalprotection.

When we refer to violence and safety in cities, we must include a wide

range of situations, problems and reections. However, at this point, I willsimply focus on some aspects pertinent to the 2007 Global Report on HumanSettlements which focuses on urban safety and security, and try to relate themto topics presented herewith.

16. The creation of ecological conservation areas (Conservation Land and Nature Reserves)constitutes one of the most important policies included in the Federal Districts General

Ecological Planning Program, in order to maintain the water cycles of the Mexico basinand biological diversity.


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It is only recently that more studies on the topic have emerged, particularlyin Colombia, Brazil and Mexico. Although part of the violence in cities isdue to the impoverishment of certain groups, attempts have been made(Arriagada and Godoy, 1999) to show that inequality, rather than poverty,

generates increase in violence. Some examples of poorer countries and what,for example, happens in Brazil, conrm that there is no direct relationshipbetween these two situations, since poor regions do not have the highestrates of homicide or violence in general.17But the existence of genuine crimemachines that revolve around drug trafcking, smuggling, clandestinegambling, etc. supported by international maas, constitute a major growingcause of urban violence (Kowarick and Ant, 1985).

Although crime does not affect all social groups in the same way (burglary in

middle-class neighborhoods multiplied in various cities and at certain times),violence has also risen for poor people, due to the increase in robbery inpopular settlements and in the public transport system used by these groups.One of the hypotheses regarding this issue is that the increase in violenceamong young people belonging to poor families is linked to the failure tosatisfy the expectations created among second- and third-generation of citymigrants.18

In a study currently being undertaken on certain poor neighborhoods

in Mexico City, to which we referred in the section Habitat and Health, weconcluded, on the basis of direct contact with the population, that althoughneighborhoods built environment had improved, the social situationhad obviously deteriorated. The testimonies collected show an enormousincrease in violence and lack of safety, due to the emergence of youth gangswith no educational or economic perspectives. This is compounded by thelack of community programs or to provide support for mothers that haveto work and leave their children and adolescents unattended, which brings

17. Poor Latin American countries, such as Haiti, Bolivia and Peru do not have the highesthomicide rates while the greatest violence in Brazil occurs in wealthy cosmopolitan citiessuch as So Paolo and Ro de Janeiro (Briceo-Len, 2001). The issue of inequality in citieshas to do with highly unequal income distribution, the increase in contrasts and poorareas with a growing degree of social disintegration.

18. The increased expectations of the second or third generation of people born in cities whono longer belong to the migrants of the 1940s, 1950s or 1960s, occurred at the same timethat economic growth and the possibilities of social improvement stopped and an abyss

appeared between what they aspire to as regards quality of life and the actual possibilitiesof achieving this (Briceo-Len, 2000).


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them into contact with existing gangs, drugs and weapons. Local programsfor controlling violence have proved totally insufcient, according to thetestimonies we have gathered and as Alvarado points out on the basis ofresearch undertaken on several popular neighborhoods in Mexico. Although

there have been some interesting programs to create neighborhood police(which have lacked continuity), in general, the presence of police is even moredamaging to young people as a result of their arbitrary practices, repression,blackmail and corruption (Alvarado, 2004).

The middle and upper classes have responded to insecurity and violence bycreating gated communities and exclusive malls, closing streets and usingprivate police. This response has exacerbated what some researchers call thefragmentation of the city, which is most evident in certain cases such as Rio

de Janeiro in Brazil.19

As for the other issues pointed out in the 2007 Global Report on HumanSettlements, it is clear that the lack of security regarding land ownership maytrigger massive evictions of the poor population in squatter settlements;however, we have observed that in Latin America, this has mainly occurredduring dictatorial or undemocratic governments, whereas in more recentperiods, negotiation with the poor population has been more frequent. Whenirregular settlements are located near middle-class neighborhoods, and

in areas that are attractive for speculation or real-estate development, thethreat of eviction is much greater, even in cases such as Mexico City, wheregovernment has often turned a blind eye. Other cases where there has been asignicant threat of eviction are those linked to environmental protection. Ourresearch on the Ajusco Zone in Mexico City (Schteingart and Salazar, 2005)which we mentioned in previous paragraphs, detected very few evictionswhile attempts to relocate settlers that have occupied areas of environmentalinterest were unsuccessful in most cases, due to the unpopularity of measuresthat affect families with no other housing options.

19. A study on Ro de Janeiro (Lpez de Souza, 2004) mentions the fragmentation of the socio-political and spatial fabric as a consequence of the existence offavelasthat are enclaves fordrug trafcking and the self-segregation into closed communities for the upper classes,in a city where the quality of life has been severely damaged by violence and the lackof safety. At the same time, studies on gated communities have proliferated in many

countries in the region, although their presence has been exaggerated and should berelativized through urban studies.


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As we can see, the issue of security regarding land ownership is therebylinked to the environmental aspect of cities, which is also present in the lackof security in irregular neighborhoods as they are often located in areas thatare unsuitable for settlement, which tend to be low-lying, prone to ooding,

or on hill slopes where landslides may occur. These situations have claimedmany lives in recent years, particularly when the public sector has failed toprovide assistance for settlers or intervened too late, ineffectively and solelyfor political gain. The climate changes affecting Latin American countries andcities make the areas inhabited by the poor even more risky, a conditionthat is difcult to combat without radically attacking the problems of largepopulation groups which are generally in an increasingly disadvantaged anddifcult situation in the region.

Final Remarks

In an article in which we reected on participatory-action-research (Schteingart,1998) we concluded that it was necessary to establish a more functional linkbetween the academic sector, poor communities and NGOs, and to overcomethe apparent contradiction between academic and popular knowledge,regarded as unscientic. Within a critical view of the social sciences, studiesshould be oriented towards the search for knowledge that will provide

guidelines for transforming society. Moreover, human knowledge is derivedfrom interaction with the world, and there is no epistemology that has notbeen derived from action and transformed into a new action (Palazn, 1993).On a more practical level, we also thought that it was essential for grass rootsorganizations and NGOs to systematize knowledge drawn from action, forwhich researchers should be in a position to provide proper collaboration.

These considerations are particularly relevant especially regarding the studyof and support for the population living in irregular settlements or poor areas

in cities, to which I have referred at various points of this document.It is also important to mention the link between the academic sector andgovernment action. As we noted in a collective document presented duringthe last session of the World Urban Forum in 2006 in Vancouver, Canada


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(Schteingart et al., 2006) there are different interests, objectives and workdynamics in these two sectors, which often makes it difcult for themto cooperate, although this also depends on the governments politicalorientation, its level of action (federal, national or local), government ofcials

training and undoubtedly the administrations real interest in studies thatwill orient actions.20Researchers may have different degrees of involvementin public action, as generators of knowledge and ideas, by intervening inthe decision-making process, or as consultants or advisers.21Yet, I think thatalthough their work may not have been designed to orient actions, it mayexert a signicant inuence by generating valid and accurate knowledge onparticular situations. For example, for many years, those who were committedto a critical orientation of urban studies were convinced that understandingthe causes of urban problems was crucial to preventing the implementation

of policies or plans based on fallacious theories or principles that led toan increase in social inequality or to very different situations from thoseintended.

Taking stock of our researchover several decades by highlighting its ndings andshortcomings, while pointing out the need for new studies and explanationsthat are necessary during a stage of major changes in Latin American cities,reects a conviction that this task is not only important for orienting knowledgeproduction but also for ensuring that it exerts an increasing inuence on

the transformation of society. As I have tried to show throughout thispresentation, the existing reality implies political and social retrogression forlarge sectors of the Latin American population. Such retrogression, althoughacknowledged in ofcial documents, comes up against limited national orlocal policies in the context of general, inadequate proposals by internationalorganizations which should undoubtedly be modied.

20. In many cases, researchers have had to undertake studies that could only be explainedby governments interest in lending credibility to certain actions, by presenting them ashaving been guaranteed by prestigious academic institutions, whereas in fact there wasvery little coincidence between these studies and policies.

21. A useful example of this sort of consultancy work undertaken by a researcher is the studyby Antonio Azuela (2000) which provides a proposal for modifying the Law of HumanSettlements in Mexico, based on an original, wide-ranging assessment of the planning ac-tions undertaken in Mexico.


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Arriagada, Irma and L. Godoy, 1999, Seguridad ciudadana y violencia en AmricaLatina. Diagnstico y poltica en los aos 90, United Nations, CEPAL/ECLAC,Santiago de Chile.

Arriagada, Camilo, 2000, Pobreza en Amrica Latina. Nuevos escenarios y desafospara el hbitat urbano,Medio ambiente y Desarrollo 27, United Nations,CEPAL/ECLAC, Santiago de Chile

Azuela, Antonio, 2002, Propuesta de modicacin de la Ley General deAsentamientos Humanos, Secretara de Desarrollo Social, Mexico

Azuela, Antonio and M. Schteingart, 1991, El hbitat popular en AmricaLatina, in Hbitat popular urbano. Poltica de desarrollo o situacin deemergencia,Universidad de San Simn, Cochabamba, Bolivia.

Briceo-Len Roberto, comp., 2001, Violencia, sociedad y justicia en AmricaLatina,CLACSO, Buenos Aires. (Introduction).

Caldern, Julio 2003, Propiedad y crdito. La formalizacin de la propiedaden el Per. Logbook. Urban Management Program for Latin America andthe Caribbean. United Nations.

Castells, Manuel, 1975, La cuestin urbana,Siglo XXI, Mxico

Cohen, Michael, A. Blair, J. Tulchin and A. Garland, eds., 1996, Preparing forthe Urban Future. Global perspectives and Local Forces,The Woodrow WilsonCenter Press, Washington D.C.

Coulomb, Ren and M. Schteingart, coordinators, 2006, Entre el Estado y elmercado. La vivienda en el Mxico de hoy. Editorial Porra, Mexico

Araceli, Damin (2003), Tendencias recientes de la pobreza y desigualdadespor gnero en Amrica Latina, Papeles de Poblacin, Nueva poca, yr. 9no. 38, October-December, Centro de Investigacin y Estudios Avanzadosen Poblacin, UAEM, pp. 27-76, Mexico.

Duhau, Emilio, 2003, Divisin social del espacio metropolitano y movilidad

residencial, Papeles de Poblacin, April/June, no. 36, UAEM, Mexico.


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De Soto, Hernando, 2001, El misterio del capital,Editorial Diana.

Duhau, Emilio and M. Schteingart, 1997, Las colonias seleccionadas. Suelo yvivienda, p. 43 to 57, in Schteingart M., coordinadora, Pobreza, condicionesde vida y salud en la Ciudad de Mxico, El Colegio de Mxico.

Garza, Gustavo and M. Schteingart, 1977, La accin habitacional del Estado enMxico, El Colegio de Mxico.

Gilbert, Alan, 2002, On the Mystery of Capital and the Myths of Hernandode Soto. What Difference does Legal Title Make? International DevelopmentPlanning Review, vol. 24, 1-20,

Kowarick, Lucio and C. Ant, 1985, La violencia urbana, in Cuadernos Ciudady Sociedad, no.9CEDEC and others, Quito, Ecuador.

Lattes, Alfredo, J. Rodrguez and M. Villa, 2004, Population Dynamicsand Urbanization in Latin America. Concepts and Data Limitations, inChampion Tony and H. Graeme, eds., New Forms of Urbanization. Beyondthe Urban-Rural Dichotomy, Ashgate,Great Britain.

Lpez Souza, Marcelo, 2004, Ro de Janeiro: una metropolis fragmentada,en Procesos metropolitanos y grandes ciudades, A.G. Aguilar, editor, Mexico,Editorial Porra, Mexico.

Marcuse, Peter and R. Van Kempen, 2000, Globalizing Cities. A New SpatialOrder?Blackwell Publishers, Great Britain.Blackwell Publishers, Great Britain.

Ortega, Ernesto, 1997, Empleo e ingreso de los pobladores en las cuatrocolonias, in Schteingart M., coordinator, Pobreza, condiciones de vida ysalud en la Ciudad de Mxico, El Colegio de Mxico.

Palazn, Francisco, 1993, Implicacin, accin-reexin-accin, in Revista deEstudios Sociales y de Sociologa Aplicada, no. 92, July-September, Spain.

Sabatini, Francisco, 2003, La segregacin social del espacio en las ciudadesde Amrica Latina, Inter-American Development Bank, Departament ofSustainable Development, Social Programs Division. (www.iadb.org/index.cfm)

Rubalcava, Rosa M. and M. Schteingart, 2000, La divisin social del espacioen las grandes metrpolis mexicanas. Un estudio comparativo, inMarcadode Valores, yr. LX, no. 4, April, Mexico

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America: An Agenda for the 1990s, p. 144-221, R. Stren, ed, Urban Researchin the Developing World, 3. Latin America. Centre for Urban and CommunityStudies, Toronto, Canada.

_________________, 1996, What Has and Has Not Changed Since Habitat I,p. 66-79, in Cohen et al., Preparing for The Urban Future.

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_________________, 1998, La investigacin-accin y las relaciones entreorganizaciones no gubernamentales y el sector acadmico, in J.L.Mndez coordinador, Organizaciones Civiles y Polticas Pblicas en Mxico yCentroamrica, Editorial Porra, Mexico.

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9-25, en Papeles de Poblacin, yr. 6, no.23, January-March, UniversidadAutnoma del Estado de Mxico.

_________________, 2001, La divisin social del espacio en las ciudades, inPerfles Latinoamericanos, yr. 10, no. 19.

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_________________, C. Salazar, M.E. Negrete, V. Ugalde, L.J. Sobrino, C. Ruizand V. Ibarra, 2006, La relacin entre investigacin y accin pblica.Aspectos generales y algunos ejemplos, CEDUA, El Colegio de Mxico,multicopy.

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Members of the HS-Net Advisory Board

(who are also the selection committee for the UN-HABITAT Lecture Award)

2004-2007

Prof. Richard Stren

HS-Net Chair

Centre of Urban and CommunityStudies, University of Toronto,Canada

Ms. Paola Jiron

HS-Net Vice Chair

Housing Institute, University ofChile, Santiago, Chile

Dr. Marisa Carmona

Department of Urbanism, Facultyof Architecture, Urbanism andBuilding Sciences, Delft University ofTechnology, the Netherlands

Dr. Nowarat Coowanitwong

School of Environment,Resources and Development,Asian Institute of Technology,Bangkok, Thailand

Prof. Suocheng Dong

Institute of Geographic Sciences andNatural Resources Research, ChineseAcademy of Sciences, Beijing, Peoples

Republic of China

Dr. Alain Durand-Lasserve

Socits en dveloppementdans lespace et dans le temps,Universit Denis Diderot, Paris,

France

Dr. Jzsef Hegeds

Metropolitan Research Institute,Budapest, Hungary

Dr. Vinay D. Lall

Society for Development Studies,India Habitat Centre, New Delhi,India

Dr. Jos Luis Lezama de la Torre

Center for Demographic, Urban andEnvironmental Studies, Mexico City,Mexico

Prof. Om Prakash Mathur

National Institute of PublicFinance and Policy, New Delhi,India

Prof. Winnie Mitullah

Institute of Development Studies,University of Nairobi, Kenya

Prof. Peter Newman

Institute for Sustainability andTechnology Policy, MurdochUniversity, Australia


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Prof. Peter Ngau

Department of Regional and UrbanPlanning, University of Nairobi,Kenya

Dr. Tumsifu Jonas Nnkya

Institute of Housing Studiesand Building Research,University College of Lands

and Architectureal Studies, Dares Salaaam, United Republic ofTanzania

Prof. Carole Rakodi

International DevelopmentDepartment, School of Public Policy,University of Birmingham, United

Kingdom

Mr. Gustavo Riofrio

Centro de Estudios y Promocindel Desarrollo (DESCO), Lima,Peru

Mr. Nelson Saule Junior

POLIS Institute of Social Policy, SaoPaulo, Brazil

Prof. Mona Serageldin

Harvard University GraduateSchool of Design, Cambridge,United States of America

Dr. Dina K. Shehayeb

Housing and Building NationalResearch Center, Giza, Egypt

Dr. Luidmila ya Tkachenko

Research and Project Instituteof Moscow City Master Plan,Russian Federationn

Prof. Willem K.T. Van Vliet

College of Architecture and Planning,University of Colorado, Boulder,United States of America

Prof. Vladmer Vardosanidze

Institute of Architecture, Tbilisi,Georgia

Prof. Patrick Wakely

Development Planning Unit,University College London, UnitedKingdom

Dr. Mustapha Zubairu

Centre for Human Settlementsand Urban Development,Department. of Urban andRegional Planning, FederalUniversity of Technology, Minna,Nigeria


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HS-Net Secretariat

(Policy Analysis Branch, Monitoring and Research Division,UN-HABITAT)

http://www.unhabitat.org/categories.asp?catid=328

Naison Mutizwa-Mangiza

ChiefBen C. Arimah

Human Settlements Ofcer

Inge Jensen

Human Settlements OfcerEdlam Abera Yemeru

Human Settlements Ofcer

Nelly W. Kangethe

SecretaryNaomi Mutiso-Kyalo

Secretary


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Human Settlements Global Dialogue Series

The Human Settlements Global Dialogue Series is a research paper seriesthat provides a forum for publishing cutting-edge policy oriented researchin human settlements. The Series is organized and published by the PolicyAnalysis Branch of UN-HABITAT, which also serves as the Secretariatfor the Global Research Network on Human Settlements (HS-Net). Thepurpose of the Series is to encourage dialogue and exchange of ideas inthe human settlements eld. It keeps readers informed and up to datewith trends and conditions in human settlements, but also builds researchcapacity in developing countries. The target audience of the Series includesresearchers, academic institutions, policy makers, non-governmentalorganizations, as well as UN-HABITAT.

The subject of the Series is conned to the human settlements eld, bothurban and rural. Drawing on UN-HABITATs thematic focus areas, authorsare encouraged to explore the following human settlements topics: urbandevelopment and management; land and housing; urban environment;water, sanitation and infrastructure; urban economic development andnance; risk and disaster management; social inclusion; and informationand monitoring.

Interested researchers, policymakers and practitioners are encouraged tosubmit papers for publication. Please consult the HS-Net website for furtherinformation on submission procedures and guidelines for contributors.

All papers submitted for publication are reviewed by human settlementsexperts selected from within and outside HS-Nets Advisory Board. Someve to ten papers are published annually and are also posted at the HS-Netwebsite.

For more information

and to access electronic versions of the papers,

visit the HS-Net website at

http://www.unhabitat.org/hs-net


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Human Settlements Global Dialogue Series:List of Papers

No. Author(s) Title Year ofPublication

1. Carole Rakodiand EmmanuelNkurunziza

Globalization and UrbanCentres in Africa

2007

2. Willem van Vliet Broad-BasedPartnerships as a Strategy

for Urban Livability:An Evaluation of BestPractices

2008

3. Mona Serageldin(team leader), DavidJones, Franois Vigier,Elda Solloso, Shannon

Bassett, BaladrishnaMenon and aluisValenzuela

Municipal Finance andUrban Development

2008

4. Martin Horak Governance Reform fromBelow

2008


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Documents

Urban Problems and Policies in Latin America- Truths and Fallacies